ISSUE: I've tried a few things to get Drupal to STOP going to the User Prolfile page on login. I even installed the LoginToboggan module, which has nice features, just doesn't stop Drupal from sending all users that login to their User Profile page. Just to be clear, LoginToboggan's "optionally redirect [of] the user to a specific page when using the 'immediate login' feature" -- is ONLY for new users, not existing users... Yes, I know, makes no sense.

GOAL: Just need to be able to set the login page; don't need to set the page load based on role, but hey, that would be nice if it's not crazy complex.

In this (rather hackish, IMHO) solution, you're using the behavior that the login block, by default, redirects to the page the user was at before logging in. Apart from the downsides you already mentioned, I think this method will prove to be very inflexible in the long term. There are better methods, see my answer.
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marcvangendOct 15 '10 at 21:12

@Purcell: It's possible, I don't know. I had heard rules where used mainly as content workflow controls, but really haven't had the chance to look at them. Thanks for posting!!
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blundersOct 16 '10 at 1:06